“Oh my gosh, I am so full! I never knew that barbeque could taste so good! Like it’s just meat. How is it that … Ugh I don’t even know!”
Mark chuckled, she was turning out to be such a foodie, and it was cuter than fuck.
“It’s not funny, I seriously love that place.”
“I got that, little bird.” She smiled up at him, and his heart jerked at the look on her face.
He leaned down and kissed her nose, then kissed the top of her head, holding her to him as they walked, letting his heart fill at the lightness that her eyes held.
“Too full for ice cream?” he whispered against her hair.
“No way! I’m always down for ice cream!” she said excitedly, as they made their way down the sidewalk toward where his car was conveniently parked right across from a little ice cream parlor.
He hadn’t planned it that way, but looking down at his little bird, her arm wrapped around him, her brow furrowed as she studied the menu on the building in front of him, he wondered if he actually had.
’Cause everything else about the last year had been for her.
And nothing about that was going to change.
He didn’t want it too.
“If I keep eating like this, I’m going to get fat,” she muttered, before stepping up to the window.
“Hi! I’d like three scoops. Strawberry, chocolate fudge, and the butter crunch.”
Where the hell did she put it all?
The teenager behind the window stared at her slightly for a moment before looking to him.
“You sir?” The kid’s big eyes blinked at him.
“Same,” he called, getting his wallet out. There was no way he would be able to eat it all, but he wasn’t about to make her feel bad by only ordering one scoop.
After he paid, they moved to the side window, waiting on their ice cream. He had his arm wrapped around her chest with her hands wrapped around his arm.
It was a casual stance, one that he often found them in. In the cabin, in the store, anytime he could.
He loved that he could feel her against him, his arms wrapped around her, but mostly he just loved her.
As they stood there waiting for their ice cream, his eyes kept going to the man that was standing off to the side. He was eyeing Winter in a way that instantly set him on edge.
The man’s eyes kept traveling the length of his little bird before coming up and then back down, starting all over again. He felt her tense as the man winked at her and he pulled her further into him.
Wrapping both his arms around her.
“You okay?” he whispered and leaned down, his eyes still on the man. It was like the man was oblivious to him standing there and it set his teeth on edge.
Never in his life had he ever felt jealousy before like this with her.
But right then, with the as the man’s eyes made another round over her body, he was consumed by the green-eyed monster.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she whispered. The tone of her voice said that all her earlier happy mood had disappeared, draining away because some fucker couldn’t keep his eyes to himself.
He kept one eye on the man, while surveying the area around then. There was way too many people to do anything about it, but he sure wished he could.
